Has Kelly Clarkson been lip synching?

Has Kelly Clarkson been lip synching?

There has been buzz lately that the "American Idol" star is singing to a “back-up track” — like the one that got Ashlee Simpson in hot water on "Saturday Night Live." Now, a concert reviewer is coming out and accusing Clarkson of “heavy reliance on back-up tracks.”

“Kelly Clarkson live sounds exactly like she does on her albums — thanks to a heavy reliance on back-up tracks,” reviewer Kristen Lauerman wrote in the Patriot-News of a concert in Hershey, Pennsylvania. “But the ‘American Idol’ winner needs to remember that when you pull the microphone away from your mouth, all singing should cease.”

On softer songs, however, Lauerman allowed, Clarkson wasn’t allegedly relying on “loud backing vocals” and her “voice was beautiful.”

When asked if Clarkson uses backup tracks, Roger Widynowski, a spokesman at her record label, said, “No, it’s just her.” In the past, Clarkson flatly denied that she would ever lip synch, telling the San Antonio Express, “I don’t care either way [if others use back-up tracks], but you won’t ever see me doing it.”

Janet Jackson's diva list
Janet Jackson has some very particular demands.

The singer caused a flap in the U.K. after she allegedly gave producers of the popular TV show Top of the Pops a list of what she needed.

“Her demands were outrageous,” according to the show’s host, Fearne Cotton. “She’d insisted on 20 black hand towels, 20 candles that were exactly five inches tall, and vanilla-flavored soya milk for her tea. And I’m sure she didn’t even touch any of it in the end.”

Another source tells The Scoop that anyone working with Jackson is not allowed to speak to her unless spoken to first and breaking the rule is a fireable offense.

Notes from all over
Coldplay frontman Chris Martin — a.k.a. Mr. Gwyneth Paltrow — has turned down British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s invitation to meet him at his London home because Martin frets it would damage his image, according to World Entertainment News Networks.  . . .Someone has been buying out copies of the new Vanity Fair in Manhattan. Could it be for the much-discussed cover story on Jennifer Aniston, or something a little more society-oriented? The issue carries an eye-popping article by Dominick Dunne about wealthy widow Lily Safra — a woman who got a novel written by Lady Colin Campbell withdrawn from bookstores after she claimed that the main character in the book was based on her and was defamatory. “A well-dressed woman in a black Town Car has been going into stores and buying up all the issues,” says a source. “We’ve heard something like that,” Vanity Fair spokeswoman Beth Kseniak tells the Scoop. “People have told Dominick that at two newsstands an individual has come in and bought out all the copies, but we don’t know who or why.”   . . . Reese Witherspoon surfs the Net to find out what people are saying about her. “I’ll go on the Internet late at night and find out what people really think about me,” Witherspoon said, reports the Britain’s Daily Express. “It hurts my feelings sometimes though, because I get comments like, ‘She looks weird,’ ‘I hate her movies,’ and ‘She stinks.’”

Jeannette Walls Delivers the Scoop Mondays through Thursdays on MSNBC.com